Asia Bibi’s husband begs US to offer asylum

CNA Staff, May 18, 2020 / 02:00 pm (CNA).- Christians in Nigeria faced escalating persecution and a mounting death toll in the first four months of 2020, a new report has said.

In a report issued on 15 May, the International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law (Intersociety) said that 620 Nigerian Christians have been killed since the beginning of the year, and mapped a campaign of destruction and arson carried out against churches in the African nation.

The society, a non-profit founded in 2008 in Nigeria, works to promote civil liberties, the rule of law, criminal justice reform, and good governance. Its report said that “Nigeria’s main Islamic Jihadists: Militant Fulani Herdsmen and Boko Haram/ISWAP have intensified their anti-Christian violence in the old Middle Belt and Northeast regions.”

“The atrocities against Christians have gone unchecked,” the report said, “with the country’s security forces and concerned political actors looking the other way or colluding with the Jihadists.”

Intersociety said that, despite making up nearly half of the country’s population, some 32,000 Christians have been killed in Islamist attacks since 2009.

Christians in Nigeria have been the victims of an escalating series of attacks, including kidnappings for ransom, since the beginning of the year.

In January this year, four seminarians were abducted by gunman from Good Shepherd Seminary. Ten days after the abduction, one of the four seminarians was found on the side of a road, alive but seriously injured. On Jan. 31, an official at the seminary announced that another two seminarians had been released, but that the fourth, Michael Nnadi remained missing and was presumed still in captivity.

It was subsequently announced that Nnadi had been killed.

In an interview from prison earlier this month, the leader of the gang which abducted Nnadi took credit for his killing, telling local media that the 18-year-old seminarian “continued preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ,” and “told [his killer] to his face to change his evil ways or perish.”

In March, Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Abuja, Nigeria, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to address the violence and kidnappings in a homily during Mass with the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria.

“We need to have access to our leaders; president, vice president. We need to work together to eradicate poverty, killings, bad governance and all sorts of challenges facing us as a nation,” Kaigama said.

In an Ash Wednesday letter to Nigerian Catholics, Archbishop Augustine Obiora Akubeze of Benin City called for Catholics to wear black in solidarity with victims and pray, in response to “repeated” executions of Christians by Boko Haram and “incessant” kidnappings “linked to the same groups.”

Other Christian villages have been attacked, farms set ablaze, vehicles carrying Christians attacked, men and women have been killed and kidnapped, and women have been taken as sex slaves and tortured—a “pattern,” he said, of targeting Christians.

On Feb. 27, U.S Ambassador at Large for Religious Freedom Sam Brownback told CNA that the situation in Nigeria was deteriorating.

“There’s a lot of people getting killed in Nigeria, and we’re afraid it is going to spread a great deal in that region,” he told CNA. “It is one that’s really popped up on my radar screens — in the last couple of years, but particularly this past year.”

“I think we’ve got to prod the [Nigerian President Muhammadu] Buhari government more. They can do more,” he said. “They’re not bringing these people to justice that are killing religious adherents. They don’t seem to have the sense of urgency to act.”

[…]

Bishop Mark Maigida Nzukwein of Nigeria’s Wukari Diocese and one of the church stewards who lost an eye. / Credit: Wukari Diocese

ACI Africa, Aug 14, 2024 / 17:06 pm (CNA).

The Diocese of Wukari in Nigeria has condemned an attack on All Saints Catholic Church Ikyaior by the Nigerian military personnel on Aug. 5 in which the priest in charge and his stewards were assaulted and badly injured.

In the attack, said to have happened between 9 and 10 a.m., one of the church stewards lost an eye, according to a statement the diocese shared with ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, on Tuesday, Aug. 13.

The diocese noted that military personnel suspected to be from Makurdi in Nigeria’s Benue state arrived at the residence of Father Bernard Unum and assaulted him along with his stewards.

“They arrived in approximately six military trucks and motorcycles and proceeded to assault Father Unum and others present. During the attack, Cornelius Terhemen, Father Unum’s steward, sustained severe injuries, resulting in the loss of an eye,” the statement read.

The Nigerian diocese expressed shock following the incident, which is said to have occurred within the church premises despite the institution’s constant collaboration with government bodies in promoting development, justice, and peace.

The attackers continued to attack the priest even after he identified himself to the assailants.

While condemning the attack, the diocese called upon the chief of army staff “to identify and hold accountable the personnel responsible for this act of brutality.”

In the statement signed by the vicar pastoral, Father James Yaro, and the chancellor, Father Simon Akuraga, the diocese also urged the governor of Taraba state, which the diocese covers, to ensure a thorough investigation into the matter is conducted and appropriate action taken. 

“We demand the immediate return of Father Bernard’s confiscated phone and appropriate compensation for Cornelius Terhemen, whose eye was permanently damaged due to the assault,” the officials of the diocese said.

They added: “The Catholic Diocese of Wukari remains committed to supporting and collaborating with the government to ensure peace and stability in our communities.”

“As a law-abiding institution, we believe in the institution of government and anticipate prompt and decisive action from the government on this matter,” they said.

This article was first published by ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, and has been adapted by CNA.

[…]

Bishop Fikremariam Hagos Tsalim of Eritrea’s Segheneity Eparchy / InfoVaticana

Denver, Colo., Dec 29, 2022 / 16:00 pm (CNA).

After more than two months in detention in Eritrea, Bishop Fikremariam Hagos Tsalim and Father Mehereteab Stefanos have been released, several sources reported Thursday.

The 52-year-old bishop heads the Eritrean Catholic Eparchy of Segheneity. Father Stefanos, before his imprisonment, was a parish priest at St. Michael’s Parish in the same eparchy. It is still unknown whether another priest, Capuchin Friar Abbot Abraham, has been released.

Security agents had arrested Bishop Tsalim and two priests Oct. 15 at Asmara International Airport upon the bishop’s arrival from Europe. The three clergymen were detained at Adi Abeto prison, according to Agenzia Fides.

The two released prisoners were welcomed by a group that included Archbishop Menghesteab Tesfamariam of Asmara, head of the Eritrean Catholic Church, BBC News reports.

Catholics make up about 4% of Eritrea’s 6 million people. The Eritrean Catholic Church is one of the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See. It has an estimated 168,000 members in the northwestern African country and in diaspora communities around the world.

Authorities did not state a reason for the arrests of the three clergymen, BBC News reports.

The three detained clergy were accused of criticizing human rights violations in their homilies, CNA’s sister agency ACI Africa reported in October, citing a source who did not want to be named for security reasons. The objects of their criticism included the forced military enlistment of young people and evictions and confiscation of property of those who refused to go to war.

The release of the bishop and the priest comes amid agreements to end the civil war in Ethiopia, where the Eritrean government has sided with the Ethiopian government against the regional leaders of the Tigray province.

Critics of the bishop’s arrest included the U.K.-based groups Christian Solidarity Worldwide and Human Rights Concern-Eritrea.

Eritrea has aligned with the Ethiopian government’s war against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. This group’s leaders dominated Ethiopian politics for decades but the group now controls the Ethiopian region of Tigray, on the southern border of Eritrea. Since the war began in November 2020, the conflict has killed thousands of people. Hundreds of thousands of people have been put at risk of famine and millions of people have been displaced from their homes.

On Nov. 2 the Ethiopian government and Tigrayan forces signed a peace agreement to permanently end hostilities. Both parties also signed a Nov. 12 agreement concerning disarmament, humanitarian access and the Ethiopian military’s entry, Reuters reports. They are now discussing the withdrawal of Eritrean troops from Tigray.

Eritrea became independent from Ethiopia in 1991. Since then, the country has not held a national election. Its president, President Isaias Afwerki, has held office since independence.

Only four religious communities are legal in the country: the Coptic Orthodox Church of Eritrea, Sunni Islam, the Catholic Church, and the Lutheran-affiliated Evangelical Church of Eritrea.

Even legal groups face persecution. The Eritrean government has periodically targeted Catholic and other religious institutions.

In August, the Eritrean government took over the Hagaz Agro-Technical School, a Catholic institution founded and run by the Lasallian Brothers. The school trains students in farm machinery, agriculture, soil conservation, and animal husbandry.

Government officials shut down several Catholic-run schools and hospitals in 2019, saying religious bodies could not run these institutions, BBC News reports. Their legal pretext is a 1995 regulation that restricts social projects and welfare projects to the state. The regulation has been used intermittently to limit religious institutions’ activities and to pursue perceived critics of the government.

Eritrea’s Catholic bishops have opposed the application of the regulation, arguing that the Church’s social services are not in opposition to the government.

The government has drawn international criticism, including a May letter sent to Estifanos Habtemariam Ghebreyesus, the Eritrean ambassador in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

In that letter, officials of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Church in Chains-Ireland, Release Eritrea, Human Rights Concern-Eritrea, and the Eritrean Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom highlighted multiple instances of human rights violations. These included forced conscription of minors and “unjust, arbitrary and indefinite detention” of tens of thousands of citizens who are imprisoned in “harsh conditions.” Hundreds of Christians are imprisoned “solely on account of their faith.”

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an advisory body to the U.S. government, has said that Eritrea has “one of the worst religious freedom records in Africa.”

Since 2004 the U.S. State Department has designated Eritrea as a Country of Particular Concern for its religious freedom abuses.

[…]